Rise in wholesale prices eases in February

MANILA, Philippines — Wholesale prices of commodities increased at a slower pace in February due largely to the decline in the prices of crude materials, the National Statistics Office reported.

Data from the NSO showed that the general wholesale price index (GWPI) grew five percent from 7.5 percent.

The crude materials index except fuels continued to register a negative annual rate at -13.3 percent, which pulled down the GWPI during the month.

Slower price increments were seen in machinery and transport equipment while the mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials index retained its previous month’s growth rate of 20.1 percent

Increases were registered in most commodity groups particularly beverages and tobacco (15.6 percent), food (1.3 percent), manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials (2.4 percent), chemicals including animal and vegetable oils and fats (0.6 percent), and miscellaneous manufactured articles (0.9 percent).

On a month-on-month basis, the GWPI eased to 0.8 percent at the national level from 1.9 percent in January.

Mindanao posted the highest annual hike in the GWPI at six percent in February from 3.4 percent a year ago.

“Faster annual mark-ups were noted in the indices of all the commodity groups except for the index of crude materials, inedible except fuels which recorded an annual decrease of 0.4 percent,” the PSA said. 

Meanwhile, the GWPI in Luzon rose by 4.8 percent, slower than the 8.1 percent growth in February 2017. This was mainly due to the drop in the crude materials, inedible except fuels index by 13.4 percent.

The index of chemicals including animal and vegetable oils and fats had zero growth during the month, while annual increases in the indices of beverages and tobacco  and mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials decelerated to 11.5 percent and 21.1 percent, respectively.

In the Visayas, GWPI similarly slowed down to 5.5 percent.